What a Day!
by trololo4ever
Summary: After a bad encounter with Lavender Brown and the Patil twins on a Hogsmeade visit, a certain professor cheers the youngest Weasley up. Oneshot.


Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

_"What a Day!"_

by Shakespeare's Sister 92

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Ginny Weasley just couldn't believe how her day was turning out to be.

"Fourteen sickles? _Fourteen _whole sickles?"

She couldn't believe her eyes. "But just last week they were only ten!" she murmured, incredulity and disappointment written all over her fair, freckled face. "Way to dash a girl's hopes."

She had been saving up her birthday and Christmas money since the start of the school year for those shoes!

They were a rather simple pair, truth be told, but they were very nice, nonetheless. Black in color, not too much of a heel, a strap on either one. Ginny had quickly fallen in love with them, and she had been in need of a new pair of school shoes since the first of the year. Her old, scruffy, faded ones were wearing down, and a hole was beginning to form on the toe of her left one.

Unhappily, she sighed, believing that nothing could possibly make this day any worse than it already had turned out to be. Then, Fate decided that, well, just maybe it should, and so it did. It really did.

"Hello there, Weasley!" came the high, cocky voice of the one she loathed.

Dread filling her, she looked for a way out of the situation that was about to take place. After a few seconds, still she had come up with nothing. Defeated, she forced herself to turn around and face Lavender Brown and the Patil twins.

"Hello," she said quietly, hoping the three would just walk away and leave her alone. Again, Fate decided that things would not go along that smoothly today.

"And what are you doing this lovely afternoon?" Lavender asked, eyebrow cocked. Padma Patil, the Ravenclaw, raised one of her dark eyebrows as well.

"Oh, I, uh, I was just browsing the shops," Ginny answered, absentmindedly chewing on her bottom lip. "Just... just looking at some shoes."

"Ah, I see," drawled Lavender, looking up at the store in front of which the red-haired girl stood distastefully.

"Betty's Bargain Bin, eh?" Padma said, thin lips twisting into a sneer. "Looks like all of Betty's bargains belong in the bin!"

Lavender and Padma howled with laughter. Parvati, the Gryffindor and nice Patil sister, however, did not. Instead, Ginny watched her tug her sister's sleeve.

"Come on, you two. Let's just go," Parvati told them as Padma snatched her sleeve from her sister's grasp.

"So, Weasley, decided to upgrade from those ratty, old things have you?" Padma queried callously, looking at Ginny's feet, grinning toothily, unkindly at the redhead's shoes.

"It's about time," Lavender muttered, a smirk playing her lip-gloss coated mouth.

Ginny felt the tears threatening to spill over, but held strong and kept them at bay. Parvati again urged her sister and her friend to bring to an end their malicious mockery.

"Stop it, Padma, Lavender. Let's go."

"But, Parvati, don't you realize how much fun we're all having?"

"Yeah, you see Ginevra here is having a jolly good time, aren't you, Ginevra?" Lavender reached out and put her hand on Ginny's shoulder, squeezing it tightly.

"You keep your grimy hands off me, Brown!" Ginny yelled, pulling roughly away, backing up to the shop's recently cleaned window.

"Ooh, crabby this morning, I see," Lavender laughed, raising her eyebrows. "Well, maybe a pair of smelly, used shoes from Betty's will cheer you up."

"Smelly and used shouldn't be a problem for you though, Ginevra, should it? Everyone knows that you are very used to smelly and used things by now, right?"

Ginny's nostrils flared. "Shut up, Brown."

"You being a Weasley and all. Hand-me-downs-"

"Shut your mouth, Brown," Ginny told the older girl heatedly.

"-all second-hand, absolutely nothing brand new."

"Shut up!"

"Disgusting, when you think about it, really. Worn and used. Torn and dirty."

"Give over, Lavender! Let's go," Parvati said, tugging the brunette forcefully by her forearm.

Even Padma looked as if their friend had gone too far. She paled slightly as she saw a dark-robed figure turn round the corner. "Lavender, _come on_!" she begged frantically.

"Aw, are you crying, Weasley?" Lavender asked sweetly, sticking out her bottom lip.

Ginny's throat was so tight, the thirteen year old was finding it difficult to actually breathe. A tear finally escaped, trickling down her cheek. Utterly humiliated and wishing with all her might that she could disappear right then and there, she looked downward, blinking furiously at the sidewalk.

"Do you need your Mummy? Your Daddy?"

"Someone's coming! Stop, Lavender!" Padma insisted desperately.

Parvati craned her neck and saw the figure. Apparently, said figure had noticed her at about the same time she had noticed them, and began moving in their direction. The twins began panicking.

"Lavender!" Padma hissed, "You need to stop!"

"_Now_!"

Lavender ignored them and stepped closer to Ginny, who was now shaking, tears rolling down her pale face. "Rotting and holey," the older girl continued, sneering. "Sleazy clothing that's too short, skirts that look like curtains, stained shirts, scuffed trainers. Completely repulsive."

"S-shut up!" Ginny screamed, head snapping up. "Just shut your bloody mouth!"

"Getting feisty-"

"Twenty points from Gryffindor, Brown!" bellowed a deep voice from a few paces away. All four girls jumped, startled, and turned round to face the most frightening professor at Hogwarts.

"Pro-professor Snape!" stammered Lavender, eyes wide.

"I assure you, Brown, that I will indeed be informing Professor McGonagall of this little rumpus you've caused."

"B-but, sir! I didn't-! "

"Shall I assign you a detention with Filch, Miss Brown?"

"S-sir, I... _what_?!"

"Oh, yes, I think I shall," Snape murmured, glaring at Lavender. "Mr. Filch will be overjoyed to see you in his office reporting for detention at seven tonight, Brown." Then, he turned to face the Patil twins, whose palms were sweating. "Make sure your friend here does her best to get there on time."

Parvati and Padma gulped audibly and nodded. "Y-yes, sir," they answered in unison.

"Wonderful. Now, get out of my sight."

Ginny watched as Lavender and the Patils shared worried glances.

"_Now_, you three!" Snape snarled.

The fourth years did not even hesitate that time, and had disappeared far off into the distance not a half minute later. Lavender, however, had made a point of knocking into the now silently crying third year on her way.

Ginny landed on her back, knocking the breath out of her. She was gasping for air, something that seemed impossible at the moment. She too alarmed to notice when Professor Snape kneeled down to help her sit up.

"Come now, Miss Weasley," he said softly, patting the girl's back with one of his big, calloused, potion-stained hands.

Her chest was rising and falling quickly, a fresh wave of tears overcoming her. Was she going to die? She could not breathe, she needed air.

"Miss Weasley, you must calm down!" the raven-haired Potions Master demanded. "Take a deep breath."

When that still did not work, he decided that he must step things up a notch higher.

Carefully, he placed his hands on her shoulders. "Ginevra, calm yourself!"

After a moment of tiring struggle, Ginny was finally able to take in the air she needed. She allowed the professor's velvety voice to soothe her, and soon she was hiccupping, only a few tears sliding down her face.

"There's a good girl. Take another, hold it, and... release it... yes, Ginerva. That's it."

Ginny was suddenly aware of her current situation. There she was, sitting on the ground, Professor Snape kneeling before her, helping her, comforting her, holding her. Never would she have thought that the normally dour, strict, scowling man was capable of this sort of gentleness, and never, even in her wildest dreams, would she have believed that she would be the one to experience it. _Never._

Suddenly, his voice jerked her back into reality.

"Better?" he asked quietly.

Blinking her brown eyes, she gave a shaky nod. "Yes, Professor Snape," she answered.

She watched him as he removed something from his coat pocket. She then felt him cup her face with one hand, and with his other, he brought his white handkerchief to her wet, sticky face. With tenderness she had never thought a man like Severus Tobias Snape could possess, he dabbed at her eyes and rubbed away the tearstains on her cheeks. After a minute, he was finished.

"Thanks, sir," Ginny whispered as he returned his handkerchief to his pocket, her expression a cross between shock and awe. She about fell over when the corners of his thin lips turned upward into what might be considered a smile. Albeit a rather tiny one.

"Not at all, Miss Weasley. Now, let us rise. I frankly don't fancy crouching down here any longer," he said, taking her small hands in his large ones. He rose to his feet, pulling his student up with him.

The two wiped themselves off, the youngest seeing her elder in a whole new light. She smoothed down her skirt, making sure to get all the dirt off it.

"Don't let Lavender Brown get to you, Miss Weasley, or the Patils for that matter," said Professor Snape. Not a moment later, he added, "They are dunderheads, after all."

Ginny laughed, a wide grin on her face. "I won't, sir."

Professor Snape nodded, preparing to bid her good day, but something shiny caught his beetle-black eyes. Ginny watched him kneel back down where they had been only minutes before. She realized what he had seen when he began collecting silver coins.

"Oh! My money!" she cried, dropping down beside him to help. "It must have fallen out of my pocket," she explained.

"I see," he murmured, handing over six sickles to her.

Ginny counted the sickles as they stood up. "Eight... nine, and ten. Yes, sir, these are mine." She smiled, relieved that she had not lost her money. Then, she remembered what exactly she had been saving up for.

Snape followed her eyes over to Betty's Bargain Bin. In the window nearest them, he saw a pair of shoes, the ones Ginny had so badly wanted. He watched Ginny's reflection in the mirror and caught the forlorn look that passed over her features.

The shoes were only fourteen sickles. Relatively cheap to him, but relatively expensive to Ginny Weasley, he decided. How much had the girl said she had?

'_Ten sickles,_'he remembered.

After a moment of consideration, he had made his mind up. Quietly, he reached into his trouser pocket and pulled out four sickles.

"You seem to like those shoes quite a bit, Miss Weasley," he said as she turned around to acknowledge him.

"Oh, yes, sir. I do," she said, smiling slightly. "It's just... last week they'd been only ten sickles, but now they've increased the price by four. I suppose I'll just have to keep saving."

The professor stared at her for a few seconds before taking her hand. Gently, he pried open her fingers and placed the four sickles in her palm, then patted her hand shut.

"I believe this should help."

Ginny's eyes grew twice their normal size when she opened her hand. "Sir, I... I can't possibly..."

"You can, Ginevra," he told her, raising an eyebrow as if to say that the money was not open for further discussion.

She felt a prickling at the back of her eyes for the second time that day. "Thank you," she whispered, slowly raising her eyes from her hand to his face.

He gave a curt nod, and surprised her again, this time with a wink. "Good day, Miss Weasley."

"Good day, Professor Snape," she called to his retreating back as he walked down the street.

Ginny Weasley just couldn't believe how her day was turning out to be, and it was unlikely that anybody else would believe it either if she were to tell them. After all, who would honestly believe that _Professor Snape _would ever give her, or any other one of his students for that matter, a few sickles so that she could afford a new pair of shoes?

"What a day!" she muttered as she pushed open the oak door of Betty's Bargain Bin.

_**FIN**_

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A/N: This is my first one-shot. I can honestly say that I tried my best. I really hope that none of the characters are too out of character. Please take the time to leave a review. Thanks for reading! 


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